The Hotel Esplanade Zagreb’s century of famous guests, from David Beckham to Richard Nixon
Elizabeth Taylor hung out in its bar, world leaders were its guests, wars intruded. The Hotel Esplanade Zagreb has seen a lot in 100 years
East met West and often went for cocktails in Zagreb’s Hotel Esplanade.
The most glamorous and storied hotel in the Balkans has just celebrated its 100th birthday and is still packing in the stars, from Shakira to David Beckham.
Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev were both guests in its heyday, and a galaxy of Hollywood legends – from Elizabeth Taylor to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock – crossed the Iron Curtain to hang out in its art deco bar.
Others came to gamble in its casino – the only one allowed in Communist Yugoslavia at the time.
Robert Mitchum, Pierce Brosnan and Kate Beckinsale all starred in films shot in the hotel, which was built close to the Croatian capital’s main railway station to accommodate passengers on the Orient Express, the luxury train that ran between Paris and Istanbul.